Tag Archives: programming editor

Text Editor is one of the most basic and must required application, for every users(it doesn’t matter where they comes in – novice , intermediate or advanced category). Text Editor is basically used to create/edit simple text documents(e.g *.txt),i.e to manipulate the text without any formatting information. Windows NT based OS(e.g Windows XP,Vista or 7) comes with a default – text editor called Notepad (The worst text editor of this planet(or may be in this universe,but I’m not sure about that)).

Ubuntu (10.04/10.10/11.04(Natty Narwhal)) or any other Linux based distribution also comes with some default text editor, but it depends on the distro as well as the desktop(like GNOME or KDE or LMDE or XFCE) you are using; such as- GNOME desktop package contains gedit text editor by default while the KDE desktop package has kate and so on.

In GNU/Linux both type of text editors – command line and GUI, are popular. Some popular/top GUI text editors are emacs,gedit,kate etc., and the popular/awesome command line editors are Vim/vi,Nano etc. Therefore a lot of text editors are available for Ubuntu, So you might be thinking – “what text editor I should use ?”, “what editor is best for programming/coding?”, “Is there any TextMate(The most popular code editor for Mac OS X) like editor is available for Ubuntu?”. Relax, Ubuntu has the best text editor on this planet(or may be in this universe,but I’m not sure about that).

gedit – The Best Text Editor for Ubuntu

Vow! gedit is best?, it is already installed on my Ubuntu. Yeah! you are right, gedit comes by default, not only with Ubuntu but also with other Linux based OS e.g Fedora,Linux Mint,Debian etc, which uses GNOME as a desktop environment. gedit comes with Gnome desktop package, it is free,open source and cross-platform application. The latest stable version is 2.30.3. it is a UTF compatible text editor,with simple and easy to use interface. gedit is very flexible; so here is the one snapshot of gedit on my Ubuntu 10.10 desktop, after tweaking the gedit to look like TextMate.

why gedit is the best text /coding /programming editor ?

it is fast,light weight and very easy to use.

it provides Syntax Coloring(through template mechanism, so it can be changed/adjusted according to the need) for all common programming languages like C,C++,java,ruby,python,perl,php,javascript, etc

it is very flexible and modular

its features can be easily extended/altered, using plugins(e.g file browser plugins,auto complete plugins etc)

That’s all ..if you think that, any other text editor is better, or whatever, express your thought through comments.

TextMate is one of the most popular text editor, available only for Macintosh Computers(Mac OS X). If you have ever used the TextMate on Mac OS, then surely you always want to stick with it, probably due to its simplicity, productivity and features.

But the problem is that “TextMate is a Mac Application, the default a proprietary text editor for MAC OS X and it is not available for any other operating system”. Well! then how will we use it on Ubuntu 10.04/10.10/11.04 or Linux Mint or Open Suse or any other Linux based OS ? The simple solution is – To mimic the look,layout and features of TextMate, so in the end of this post we will get a TextMate like text editor. Programming is complete Fun!, when you have TextMate like a powerful code editor (Emacs, Vim, gedit, TextMate etc), rather than a bloated and painfully slow IDE.

Why TextMate is So Popular among the Programmers ?

it is simple to use

Syntax Color Scheme is great

Auto completion of code(e.g brackets, snippets)

looks great

it is light weight and fast

it increases productivity

File Browser, it’s easy to find the source files easily

Linux based Distributions (in short ‘distros’) have the default(GNOME based distros) text editor named – gedit, a free and open source text editor with a lot of powerful features and flexibility to extend the functionality by means of plugins. Therefore we are going to transform the gedit to textmate in few simple steps, so that gedit text editor will finally look (and almost behave) like TextMate. Actually you can customize gedit not only on Ubuntu but also on other Linux based distro, that uses gnome desktop or having gedit packages installed on the system.

Transforming gedit to TextMate in 4 simple steps

#1 : Install gedit plugins

To install extra plugins, type the command at the terminal/command line/shell, followed by login password(If required) –

sudo apt-get install gedit-plugins

#2 : Install TextMate Fonts

Download the font – Monaco,which is the default font used in TextMate. Then copy it to home->username ->.fonts (hit CTRL+H to see hidden files).

#3 : Install Syntax color Scheme

download the DarkMate theme coloring scheme and install it from gedit. To install open gedit and click on Edit -> Preferences -> Font & Colors. Then click on Add button and locate the download file(darkmate.xml).

#4 : Install File Browser plugin

Download the class browser plugin ; Extract it to FileSystem-> usr-> share->gedit2->plugins. Then activate it by select the check box from gedit(Edit->Preferences->Plugins). Here is one snapshot ..if you have any doubt(or reply through comment,in case of any problem).

To install the plugin, first extract the package and run install.sh. Finally, you just need to enable it from gedit -> preferences ->plugins.Update! Try GMate plugin it’s great! See gedit plugins for Rails Developers for more details, #5 added.

Geany is a text editor based on GTK2 toolkit with some extra features i.e the features of an integrated development environment(IDE).It is an open source and free application available for Linux(Ubuntu,Linux Mint,Debian,Fedora..) as well as for Windows and Mac.Geany is a light and fast IDE,with little dependencies.

Basic Features of Geany IDE

code folding

syntax highlighting

auto closing of *ML(XML,HTML,..) tags

code navigation

plugin interface

symbol lists

Build system to compile and execute your code

supported files are XML,HTML,C,java,PHP,C++,javascript..

Installing Geany in Ubuntu

You can install Geany in two ways either by command line or from synaptic package manager by adding a package source,because geany has not been added into default packages.

From Synaptic package Manager

Open the Synaptic Package Manager(Enter your Password,if required).Then click on Settings->Repositories.A new window with the Name Software Soruces will appear.Click on Other Software Tab.Next,click on +Add button to add software source,now it will ask for APT Line.Type

ppa:ferramroberto/linuxfreedomlucid

in APT line and click on Add Source button.That’s all..Now update the package information by clicking on Reload button(in Synaptic Package Manager).Then search for ‘geany’ and mark the selected package for installation.Click on Apply to install.

Manual Installation of Geany on UbuntuDownload The Package from the link given below.